Remembering Laura
by LisaT
Summary: On Earth, Hera Agathon remembers the woman who shaped her life.


Hera Agathon's diary, aged 13 years, 5 months, twenty days, and 10 hours. Everyone else, Keep Out! That means you too, Kara Agathon!

Mom and I went up to the shrine today because it's our week. Dad didn't come, but he never does. I asked Mom why, and she said it was complicated, and sometimes she feels the only reason she goes is because of the old man.

It's quiet up there. You can hear yourself think. There's a one-room log cabin. The only pieces of furniture left are the bed, a single bench for people to sit on, and a small table. After the Admiral died, the community took away all of his stuff, even his books, because Lee said that's what he'd have wanted. Now his books are in the schoolhouse, and it's the only library we have.

Flags are everywhere in this tiny space. There's the big official flag of the Twelve Colonies, and there's the little flags for each of the colonies. Then there's the flag of the Colonial Fleet. The little table stands under the big flag, and there's always flowers left there, beside the photographs. One of the photos is of the old man, back on _Galactica_. The other is of the president, Laura Roslin.

When Mom cleans that photo of the dust, she has a funny look on her face. When she does the Admiral's, she does it carefully, and sometimes she looks like she's gonna cry.

The graves are outside. Just two long piles of rock and grass, side by side. There's a wooden carving standing at the head of the first one, but you can't really see what's on it now . It's been beaten by the wind and the dust and dried out by the sun. The Admiral did it, Mom says, for Roslin. Because he loved her.

After Mom and I cleared the offerings away from around the graves – the flowers and the fruit and all the things that people leave to say 'thank you' and 'we remember you' she goes into the shrine, but I stay outside. I sit beside the graves and look down over the valley where we've made our home. I like being close to the sky.

Laura Roslin died two years after we found Earth. No-one expected her to live that long, but old Doc Cottle says that sometimes people surprise you. Caprica and Baltar did something and Roslin became healthy again for a short while. Not completely healthy, but well enough to walk around and have visitors and even teach a little on her good days.

When Mom and Dad heard about what Baltar and Caprica had done, they went weird. Quiet. Angry. Mom kept hugging me. I asked why, but they said they'd tell me when I was older. For a long time after that we didn't go to see the Admiral.

Then one day I was on my way to the market and I saw them. The Admiral and her. She was leaning on his arm, and her hair was long and red. It made me feel funny, like I'd fallen into a dream. When she saw me, she stopped dead.

'Hera.'

I went up to them and shook hands, like Mom taught me. 'Admiral Adama. Mad-'

She waved a hand. 'It's Laura, Hera. Just Laura.'

I shuffled from foot to the next. She was old. Mom says it's rude to call old people by their first names. 'Madam Laura,' I said.

'That'll do,' she said - sighed. She put her hand out, as if she wanted to touch me, but she pulled it back. 'How are you?' She looked at me so hard that I felt uncomfortable, like I'd done something wrong.

'I'm – I'm good,' I told her. I stammered a bit, but I wasn't quite seven then. Still a kid.

'Are you enjoying Earth?' she asked. I wished she would stop looking at me like that, as if I held all the answers to her questions.

'Yes, ma'am,' I replied. At least I couldn't go wrong with _that_. 'It's very … green.'

She stared at me for a moment, and then she giggled, and I felt my cheeks warm. Had I said something stupid? She looked as if she wanted to touch me again, but instead she moved both hands so that they were clasped around the Admiral's arm. She looked up at him. 'I think we're all enjoying the … green, aren't we, Admiral?'

'It makes a change from the stars,' he said. He smiled at me, and I relaxed. I liked him. He was comfortable and even though he looked scary, his eyes were kind. Nicky Constanza once said he could tell the most marvellous stories, but my family didn't visit as often as Hotdog does.

Roslin looked as if she wanted to say something more, but someone came up to talk to them and I was able to go. When I looked back, she was still watching me.

That night, I asked Mom and Dad about her. They told me everything. They told me how Roslin wanted to kill me before I was born, and how I saved her life when she was dying the first time. They told me that she took me away from my parents and gave me to another woman. She told my parents I was dead. My Mom cried when she told me that, but I felt a funny prickle run up and down my spine. Sometimes I think I remember another dark lady who was my mom. Sometimes I think I remember dark red-brown hair and light reflecting off dark-rimmed glasses.

Mom says I was in Laura Roslin's school on New Caprica. That she wanted to keep me safe. Then the Cylons came and eventually they got me. I got upset then, and we stopped talking about it, but now and then I asked more questions and slowly the answers came.

And then there was that last day on _Galactica_. I don't remember much after Mom got me away from Boomer. I remember running down the corridors. I remember Laura Roslin grabbing me and hiding me behind a cargo container, away from the shooting, but I didn't stay with her. I kept running until I found the golden Six. Then Mom and Laura Roslin came and we all went to CIC and people started shooting and screaming.

Mom says that if it wasn't for the Admiral and Laura Roslin, Cavil would have kept me and probably killed me. Laura Roslin tried to kill me, and I saved her life. Then she saved mine, over and over and over.

As I sit beside her grave and the Admiral's, and watch their people move around in the valley below, I don't know how I feel about Roslin. Part of me loves her and misses her. Part of me hates her.

But I know I'll never forget her.

-End.


End file.
